Says country’s economic future is linked with China but that doesn’t mean ties with US are being reset
news desk
islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that Saudi Arabia would always be a friend of Pakistan despite the government’s recent criticism of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over the Kashmir issue.
“Yes, we want OIC to play a bigger role [in the Kashmir issue]. But let me make it clear: Saudi Arabia will always be a friend of Pakistan,” he said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera news.
The prime minister was responding to a question about Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s unusually sharp warning in August asking the OIC to stop dilly-dallying on convening a meeting of its Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) on Kashmir.
In an interview with a private news channel, Qureshi had said if the kingdom failed to summon the meeting, Pakistan would be ready to go for a session outside the OIC.
The Foreign Office (FO) had defended these remarks, saying Qureshi’s statement was a reflection of the people’s aspirations and expectations from the OIC to raise the Kashmir issue internationally.
When asked about the lack of international support on the issue in today’s interview, the premier replied that Kashmir was a disputed territory between Pakistan and India.
“This disputed territory was taken over by India on August 5, last year by brute force,” he said, adding that Pakistan had “knocked on all doors” and would continue doing so.
“If this escalates and if it breaks into a conflict between India and Pakistan, it will have implications for the rest of the world.”
However, the reason why certain parts of the world are not responding on the issue, is because they are worried about their commercial interests, he said.
“They look upon India as a huge market, and so they are willing to ignore this huge travesty of justice taking place [in the valley].
“[But] it doesn’t mean we will sit down quietly and accept this. We will keep trying.”
‘Just settlement for Palestinian conflict’
The premier also touched upon the recent deal regarding the normalisation of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
“Any one-sided settlement which is going to be imposed on the Palestinians is not going to work because the issue will never get resolved.
“Israel is in a very strong position right now, probably the strongest it’s ever been. But Israel too must recognise that if they do not allow Palestinians to have a just settlement, the issue is not going to die down.”
PM Imran said the issue will just keep “festering” even if some countries recognise Israel as a state. “It’s in Israel’s interest that there should be a just settlement.”
